LIS2001063001 - 30 JUNE 2001 - LISBON, PORTUGAL: Palestinian President Yasser Arafat (R) shakes hands with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Perez (L) as Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres (2R) looks on prior to the meeting of the Socialist International in Lisbon, Portugal, June 30, 2001. Arafat and Perez are in Lisbon to attend the International Socialist Council that will discuss on Saturday the Middle East situation. rlw/apo/Arafat Press Office UPI

António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres, GCC (Portuguese pronunciation: ; born 30 April 1949) is a Portuguese politician, a former prime minister and President of the Socialist International. Currently he is the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

António Guterres was born and raised in Portugal's capital, Lisbon, son of Virgílio Dias Guterres (b. São José, Lisbon, 21 October 1913) and wife Ilda Cândida de Oliveira (b. Fundão, Donas, 12 February 1923). As a young child he already showed the abilities which would later garner him the award for Best High School Student for the year of 1965. He continued his studies at IST, where he pursued degrees in physics and electrical engineering. During his college years Guterres was never involved in the student opposition to the authoritarian regime of António de Oliveira Salazar and, from 1968, Marcelo Caetano. Instead, he dedicated himself to his studies and to meetings of the JUC (Catholic University Students Movement). In 1971 he graduated and started an academic career as Assistant Professor.

His political career started in 1972, when he joined the Socialist Party. On New Year's Eve that year, at Carnide, Lisbon, he married his first wife, Luísa Amélia Guimarães e Melo (b. Porto, 1 September 1946), by whom he had two children, Pedro Guimarães e Melo Guterres (b. 1977), married to Vanda Lobo and father of Maria Ana Lobo Guterres (b. Lisbon, 11 February 2009), and Mariana Guimarães e Melo de Oliveira Guterres (b. 1985). Shortly thereafter, he quit academic life and became a full-time politician. In the period following the Carnation Revolution of April 25, 1974, which put an end to Caetano's dictatorship, Guterres was closely involved in the organization of the Socialist Party, especially the Lisbon section. Guterres became one of the party leaders and held the following offices:

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